Players to Watch vs. Commanders in Week 9

As we’ve seen throughout his first NFL season, Malik Nabers was the most targeted Giants pass-catcher in Monday’s game against the Steelers. The rookie wide receiver saw 13 targets and caught a team-high seven of them for 71 yards. The Giants did a good job of moving Nabers around in order to create positive matchups for the talented wideout, as three of his receptions and 40 of his receiving yards came with linebacker Patrick Queen in coverage, according to Pro Football Focus. This resulted in two first downs for the Giants.

After missing Weeks 5 and 6 due to a concussion, Nabers is seemingly back to 100 percent health. In Week 7, the rookie was on the field for 93 percent of the team’s offensive snaps. That number jumped up to 99 percent of the snaps this past week, which was the most he’s played since taking every offensive snap in the season opener. In those two games, Nabers has been targeted 21 times and has caught 11 passes for 112 yards.

The first matchup against the Commanders saw Nabers put together his most dominant outing of the season. In just his second NFL game, the 21-year-old caught 10 passes for a season-high 127 yards and the first touchdown of his career. The Commanders have allowed just one of the last five quarterbacks they’ve faced to throw for over 145 yards, although the matchups played a large role in that. Nonetheless, Nabers and the rest of the Giants’ offense will take on a Commanders defense playing much better football lately compared to early in the season.

When it comes to the Giants’ pass rush, Dexter Lawrence has garnered much of the attention this season, and rightfully so. But Azeez Ojulari has put together a strong stretch of games, including Monday’s performance in Pittsburgh. The fourth-year outside linebacker sacked Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson twice and finished tied for third on the team with seven total tackles.

This was Ojulari’s second multiple-sack outing in the last three weeks, as the 24-year-old has recorded five total sacks during that span. Ojulari is now second on the team with six sacks on the season, despite playing less than 45 percent of the defensive snaps over the first five games. He is also tied for 10^th in the NFL in sacks.

Ojulari played just 22 defensive snaps in the first game against the Commanders, finishing with three total tackles (one solo), including a tackle for loss. In six career games against Washington, he has registered 2.5 sacks, seven quarterback hits, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. Starting left tackle Cornelius Lucas suffered an ankle injury in last week’s game and has not participated in practice so far this week. Trent Scott filled in for him last week and allowed three total pressures on 21 pass blocking snaps.